Imagine coming home from a vacation or at the end of a workday to find your house ransacked and your family heirlooms and other valuables missing. You feel violated and wonder if the criminals will come back. Now you must spend hours making insurance claims, filing police reports and trying to replace your belongings. This doesn’t have to be you. Knowing how thieves operate can help you outsmart them.

The National Park Service entrance fees will also be waived on August 14 & 15, September 25, and November 11, 2010. Other fees will stay the same such as fees for camping, reservations, or tours.There are 147 parks that normally charge entrance fees ranging from $3 to $25. The other 245 national parks do not charge entrance fees.

Try to fly on Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Saturdays. The lowest fares are usually on these days.

Late night or early morning flights tend to be cheaper.

Flights with one or more stopovers are usually less expensive than direct flights.

Check fares on each airline’s website. Often they have special deals not available through 3rd parties. This is especially true for discount airlines such as Frontier, JetBlue or Southwest. Find which budget airline serves your route at www.whichbudget.com

Try to book at least 21 days in advance. For holidays book 2 -3 months ahead. Be flexible with your flying dates. Check Bing’s Flexible Travel Search to see if prices are on the way up or down.

Avoid flying in June or July or Christmas through New Years. These are the busiest times and the hardest time to get a cheap flight.

If you need several tickets, sometimes buying them one at a time will get you a lower price than trying to buy them all at once.

Online discount ticket sellers such as Expedia, Priceline, Orbitz or Travelocity release their new prices on Wednesday of each week. Often you can get the best prices early Wednesday morning just after midnight.

Fly on major holidays instead of the day before the holiday. These flights can be some of the slowest.

If flying one-way, check round-trip rates. Sometimes they are cheaper than the one-way tickets.